Intellectual Property Law

Schwarzenegger's Anti-Video Game Law Terminated by Appeals Court

By Chris Bennett, Tudor Carsten, Michael R. Coburn, Sarah Dale-Harris, Pablo Guzman, Danielle (Dani) Lemon, Chris Metcalfe and David Spratley

On Friday, February 20, 2009 a U.S. Federal Appeals Court ruled that a California law aimed at restricting the sale of violent video games to minors was unconstitutional. The ruling came in the Video Software Dealers Association v. Schwarzenegger, where the video game industry sought to block the anti-vide game law that was signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2005. The Appeals Court upheld the decision of the District Court which found that video games are a form of expression protected by the 1st Amendment and that minors are entitled to benefit to a large extent from the guarantee to freedom of speech.

The Court agreed with the Video Software Dealers Association's argument that there are other less restrictive means than censorship of protecting children from violent video games, such as retailer ratings enforcement, ratings education and parental supervision of children's video game playing. The Court also found that in order to justify the restriction on freedom of speech, the government had a burden to prove that the law would directly alleviate a real harm to minors, which it failed to do.

To date there is no indication as to whether the Attorney-General will be back and appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, although the Senator who drafted the law has stated that he would like to have the decision reviewed.

coverage atGameDaily.com

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Full post as published by Video Game Law Blog on February 26, 2009 (boomark / email).